All except Cathy and the youngest children were gathered together in the large drawing room of Killigrew House the following afternoon. Jack and Annie’s girls were returning to London to their nursing college the next day, but were here for the reading of the will. Justin was very formal and correct as he stood in front of the fireplace with the documents ready to open, while the others sat and waited expectantly, murmuring quietly amongst themselves. It was more like a wake, Morwen thought irritably, knowing Hal would never have wanted that. He’d never liked sad faces around him.
She caught Ran’s glance, and gave him a half-smile that tinged her cheeks with colour. Last night… oh, last night had become so tender and loving, and Ran had swept her into his arms with all the gentleness and finesse of their first tremulous lovemaking, and the glow of it all was still with her… but she remembered where she was, and why they were all here, and she looked away quickly, lest the glances they shared should be understood too well.
But she knew that no one was really bothering about anyone else. They were all intent on trying to be solemn. Trying not to look too eager, or too interested, or too avaricious. Morwen played a little trick of detachment, trying to see the occasion through their eyes, instead of her own…
It was no longer strange to think that Hal Tremayne, one-time clayworker who had risen to such dizzy heights through his own hard work and his daughter’s marriage connections, was a wealthy man. And his wife would naturally and rightly inherit everything, Morwen thought.
Though she would almost certainly hand over the future business dealings to Ran, or maybe Justin, as the family lawyer and accountant. Bess had no head for business, and the very thought of it would unnerve her.
Her brothers… well, Hal would certainly have provided something for them, and for herself, she supposed… at this point, Morwen abruptly stopped speculating. It suddenly seemed all too grasping and sad, and besides, Justin was starting to shuffle his papers about, and looking surprisingly uneasy.
Her heart missed a beat. Justin would have opened the safety deposit box that morning, and read her daddy’s will, but there could surely have been nothing unusual in it, she thought…
‘If we’re all ready, I’ll begin,’ Justin said, and Morwen readjusted her thoughts thankfully as his voice became formal and businesslike.
‘This is the original last Will and Testament of Hal Tremayne, as signed and witnessed in the presence of Richard Carrick of Truro—’
‘Original?’ Jack echoed sharply. ‘Did you say the original will, Justin?’
‘I did. The first part is the original will, but a codicil was added and witnessed three years ago. The instructions are for the original will to be read out, and then the codicil, in explanation of Hal Tremayne’s wishes. Everything’s in order, Uncle Jack, and I’d be obliged if I can get on with it.’
Jack glanced at his wife, and for the first time Morwen wondered just how anxious Annie Tremayne was to get her greedy little hands on some of her daddy’s money. Not that she needed it. Her own family was well-heeled, and Jack’s boat-building business was a thriving success. Annie had been sweetness itself when Jack married her, but over the years she had proved to be quite a shrewd one, always wanting more.
Morwen ignored such unpleasant thoughts, and listened quietly while Justin went through the bequests in the original document. The house and all its contents, and all Hal’s personal assets were left to Bess, as expected. And then Morwen’s eyes filled with tears at the next words. The will had been expressed in Hal’s own turn of phrase, with none of the pomposity of a lawyer’s hand in it. She blessed Richard Carrick for that, even while it stirred up such memories.
‘To all my natural-born grandchildren, however many scallywags there may be at the time of my death, I leave the sum of three hundred pounds each, to be used for their own enjoyment with no interference from their elders, unless they be too young to know what they’re doing. This is my wish, that they use the money for pleasure, or whatever purpose they choose, and that they spare a kind thought to their grandaddy while doing it.’
Charlotte was openly sniffing now, and Morwen had to swallow hard as she saw Bess’s slight smile. Bess would probably have known all about this, Morwen thought, so it would be no surprise to her. But it must stir up many memories as the ghost of Hal’s voice came through his wishes.
‘To my beloved daughter Morwen,’ Justin’s voice went on, ‘I leave the sum of two thousand pounds, providing the coffers in the bank say ’tis there to be had.’ He paused, hearing the communal gasps, before stating quickly that of course the bequest would be honoured, while Morwen sat in amazement, not expecting this fortune.
She felt Ran’s hand reach for hers and squeeze it, but she hardly knew how she felt. What did you do at such a time? You could hardly say thank you very much, and it didn’t seem right to express great delight. She simply kept her eyes lowered and said nothing at all.
‘To my sons, Jack, Matthew and Freddie, I leave my shares in the land and clayworks known as Killigrew Clay, making them equal partners in my portion of the business.’
‘That was a fine and thoughtful thing for Daddy to do,’ Freddie said at once, his voice choked.
Justin went on reading Hal’s words. ‘I have left my daughter Morwen out of this bequest for the following reasons. She is already a partner in her own right as the widow of Ben Killigrew, and will eventually inherit her present husband’s shares also. And I don’t want to burden her with too much responsibility in a man’s world.’
Morwen blinked. She had never thought things out like this before, and she knew that Richard Carrick must have been guiding her Daddy’s words at that point. But even though she knew that as long as Killigrew Clay flourished, she would never be poor again, she had no wish to be a controlling woman clay boss like that other awful creature.
In the buzz of excited conversation Jack moved across to Freddie and shook him by the hand, cautious smiles on both handsome faces now. Matt nodded more gravely as they turned to him in the same spirit. The other two were obviously thinking they had something to celebrate, but the wealth from a china clayworks clearly didn’t mean so much to a man who had found vast riches in the gold fields of California.
But then Morwen saw her mother bite her lip and shake her head slightly, and she wondered if there was too much exuberance being shown. Or whether this codicil Justin had mentioned was going to put a sting in the tail.
She heard her son clear his throat, and the chatter in the room settled down again.
‘I said there was a codicil to the will. It’s legal, and it’s watertight,’ Justin said, and Morwen knew him well enough to know that his deliberate choice of words was a warning. She held her breath, wondering just what her Daddy could have done to change things, or why he would have wanted to do so, when everyone seemed more than content with their lot. Hal would have known that…
‘The codicil is signed by Grandad, and witnessed by two outside lawyers from Bodmin. Like most of the will, it’s written in Grandad’s own words. But this is in the form of a letter, and it was dictated to Daniel Gorran, who declared its authenticity in the presence of these witnesses.’
‘Get on with it, for pity’s sake,’ Freddie snapped, with a rare loss of patience at this time-wasting. ‘If Daddy’s ousted us from his will, then let’s hear it.’
‘He wouldn’t do that,’ Jack said quickly. ‘There must be summat else to come.’
He looked expectantly at Justin, who had gone decidedly paler, thought Morwen. Dear heaven, but she too wished he’d get on with it. He cleared his throat again, and began to read in an expressionless voice.
‘My dear family,’ he read.
‘Being of sound mind, and knowing I’ll probably be throwing an almighty cat among the pigeons, I intend reviewing my earlier will. Everything stands as stated afore, regarding the bequests to my wife, Bess Tremayne, my daughter Morwen Killigrew Wainwright, and my natural-born grandchildren.
‘But I’ve seen my three sons prosper and grow rich by their own achievements, and no man could be prouder of them for that. None of them needs my Killigrew Clay shares, and what’s more, none of them has the heart for the claying.’
Amid the gasps of shock and outrage in the room, Justin held up his hand and carried on reading doggedly.
‘I attach no blame or censure to my sons for that. A man can only follow his own heart, and there’s only one among you all who has the true heart of a claying man.’
Morwen heard Walter give a strangled gasp, and she didn’t dare look anywhere but at the floor.
‘If my first-born son had lived, and in the natural way of things, he would have been the rightful inheritor of all that was mine to give, and in time it would have passed to his own eldest son. Over the years I’ve seen Walter grow in stature, and his love for the clay has never diminished. I see in him the essence of myself and of Sam. Because of all these considerations, I hereby revoke all the bequests to my three surviving sons, namely Jack, Matthew and Freddie Tremayne, and leave the shares of my third portion in Killigrew Clay, in total, to my eldest grandson, Walter Tremayne.’
‘No! It’s not right! He can’t do this to us!’ Annie leapt to her feet, red-faced and angry. ‘The original will should stand. Jack, tell them! Don’t let this happen!’
Tight-lipped, Jack brushed her clinging hands aside, and growled that he was sure Justin knew what he was doing in saying the codicil was watertight. He glanced at his mother, and saw by her face that she had been very well aware of what was to happen. He hesitated a moment, his face as red as his wife’s, but obviously thought better of a similar outburst. Matt said nothing for the moment, but Freddie spoke up loudly above the mutterings in the room.
‘If ’twas Daddy’s wish to leave it all to Walter, then we must abide by it and good luck to the boy, I say.’
He strode across to Walter, grabbing his hand and shaking it. ‘And ’tis quite true what Daddy said. The three on us don’t need the shares, and you were always the one wi’ the clay in your blood, same as Sam. So good luck to you, Walter.’
‘Well done, Freddie,’ Matt said forcefully now. ‘That goes for me too. As for you and your wretched womenfolk, Jack, I’d have thought you were comfortable enough if you can send your daughters to London for expensive training.’
‘That’s not the point,’ Jack said angrily. ‘And I’d thank you not to slander my family. Anyway, Annie’s perfectly right. Why shouldn’t we expect summat from Daddy’s money?’
‘Because he had every right to do as he liked with it,’ Matt said, just as coldly. ‘Just listen to yourself, man, and stop behaving like a skinflint, for God’s sake.’
By now, Jack’s girls were grizzling noisily, and being comforted by their mother. Morwen had never thought Annie would be quite so outspoken, nor that the twins were so much like her. She hadn’t thought that a man’s dying could bring out the worst in folk, either, and it was only when the man concerned had money and possessions that it happened.
If Hal Tremayne had died as modestly as he’d lived in his early years, he’d have had nothing to leave behind, and there wouldn’t be all this upset and wrangling. But, thank God, Matt had managed to calm the storm that had seemed so imminent moments ago.
And not everyone was upset. Although Walter himself was still white-faced and stunned by the turn of events, she saw that he was being hugged by Albert and Charlotte now. They were both openly pleased for him, and begrudged him nothing. Morwen was quite sure Primmy would react in the same way. The other children in Hal’s large family were too young to have their heads bothered by it all, and as for Justin…
With a huge shock, she suddenly noticed how grim and gaunt her clever son looked now, as he gathered up the papers, inviting anyone who cared to scrutinize them to come and do so before he left for his chambers.
And she didn’t need any sixth sense or fey Cornish intuition to know that it was Justin who was most put out by what he had heard. Despite having had prior knowledge of it when he’d opened the safety deposit box that morning, it was Justin who was eaten up with jealousy that his stepbrother had got the lion’s share of her daddy’s estate, and who was finding it devilishly hard to hide it.
Ran was deep in conversation with Freddie and Matt now, and she walked swiftly across to where her mother sat a little apart from the rest of them, letting the flow of conversation wash over her. Morwen sat down beside her, taking her cold hand in her own.
‘You’ll have known all about this, Mammie,’ she said quietly. ‘You and Daddy would have discussed it between you.’
She tried not to sound accusing, but surely, surely, Hal must have known of the upset it would cause. She was so very glad for Walter, but so desperately sorry for Justin.
Albie wouldn’t care a jot, but Justin… she remembered with a searing jolt the time when Cresswell had so innocently blurted out the truth of the children’s parentage. And how Justin had turned against Walter, when he discovered that he was the rightful first-born son of Ben Killigrew, and the three older ones were only his adopted brothers and sister. It had shadowed their relationship for quite a while.
And yet Morwen could hardly believe that Justin had been harbouring resentment against Walter all these years. In her heart she knew it wasn’t so, but the very thought of a bitter family feud made her so fearful that she clutched at Bess’s hand even more tightly.
‘I knew of it, and when it was certain that our own three boys were secure and well set-up, I agreed with Hal that it was the way to do things,’ Bess said. ‘As our eldest, it was Sam who would rightly have inherited the shares, and it was Sam’s eldest that was due for them in the end. ’Tis the way ’tis done in the best circles. You know that better’n me, our Morwen.’
Oh, but they didn’t belong in the best circles, Morwen wanted to cry out. They were humble folk, despite their fine clobber, and the way they’d come up in the world. They weren’t kings and princes who handed down riches to the eldest son and to blazes with the rest of them. But her daddy had acted in just that way, grander in death than he’d ever been in life, and Justin was the one who was suffering for it now.
It could be the makings of a great gulf between brothers. She felt it in her soul. And as if to underline her thoughts, Walter, her best-beloved, who could rant and curse with the best of the clayers when it came to a verbal fight, seemed totally unable to know what to say to his brother now.
‘We’re leaving now, Mother,’ Jack said, hovering near with his family. ‘The girls have to get packed again, and we’re taking them back to London early tomorrow morning.’
The goodbyes were swift and awkward, and Morwen wondered how it was that moments ago they had been such a united family, and now it all seemed to be splitting apart. Annie would hardly look at her, knowing she’d been too outspoken, and still flushed and embarrassed because of it.
‘I’ll come with you, Uncle Jack,’ Albie said at once. ‘I’ve got a client coming for a portrait tomorrow, and I need to put the finishing touches to it tonight.’
His words were enough to set the twin girls giggling slightly, and Morwen saw that the thought of their handsome artist cousin joining them in the family carriage was enough to brighten their day.
‘What about you, Charlotte?’ Jack said, thankful for a lighter moment. ‘Are you in need of a ride back to that posh mansion of yours?’
‘It’s hardly mine. I just work there,’ she grinned. ‘But no, thank you. I’ll wait for Justin. We’re having a meal together tonight, and I think he intends going to the newspaper offices with brief details of the bequests to publish on the local affairs page. I understand Mr Askhew suggested it, so that people wouldn’t speculate and get the wrong end of the stick.’
Freddie snorted. ‘Oh, Tom Askhew were always clever in ferretting out the news he wanted to print, and I daresay he’ll be glad to hear his son-in-law’s being so well set-up.’
‘I thought you said you held no grudges, Uncle Freddie,’ came Walter’s troubled voice behind him.
Freddie turned at once. ‘I don’t, Walter, but I never had any love for your father-in-law, and neither did you, and I know he’ll make the most of this news.’
‘Well, I don’t know that I want it published for all to see,’ Walter said at once.
‘It’s the way things are done,’ Justin said coldly, overhearing the conversation. ‘All notables in the area have the main bequests in their wills published, and since Grandad Hal came into that category, you’ve got no choice.’
‘I damn well have,’ Walter said belligerently, at which Morwen put her hand on his arm at once, pleading with her eyes for him not to make a scene here and now.
If it came to a fist fight between them at some later stage, well, her daddy always said a heated exchange of blows between men was a healthy enough way to clear the air. But not now. And not here.
‘Go home, Walter. Go home and tell Cathy your news. Enjoy your little Theo, and have a private celebration. I’m so pleased for you, my darling, but don’t create any extra upsets for Grandma Bess today,’ she said quietly. ‘There’ll be time enough for other things later.’
He put his arms around her and hugged her tightly. His voice in her ear was young and unsure, and so dear to her that it almost broke her heart.
‘You don’t resent me for it, do you, Mother?’
‘Of course not. You know how very special you are to me, Walter, and nothing will ever change that,’ she said softly, for his ears alone.
He nodded, and turned to kiss his grandmother before leaving the house to go home to his own little family. Cathy would put the spring back into his step, Morwen thought, watching him go.
Cathy Askhew had been the love of his young life, and still was, and they had proved that a love as sweet and fresh as springtime didn’t have to wither when autumn came. Not that they were anywhere near that time of their lives, of course, but she had no time for those folk who said that young love inevitably faded. Hers for Ben Killigrew hadn’t… her fine thoughts faltered, knowing that Ben himself had strained her feelings to the limit, with his drinking and gambling… but through it all, she had loved him, she thought fervently.
‘Are you going to sit here dreaming all day, honey?’ Ran’s voice said quietly beside her. ‘The others are leaving, and I need to do the same. There’s much to do, before the news becomes public knowledge through The Informer.’
‘Is there?’ she said vaguely, finding it hard to adjust to what he was saying, but Ran didn’t elaborate.
She frowned, wondering what he had in mind, but then Charlotte came to hug her swiftly, and she breathed in her fragrant scent. No matter what happened, Charlotte was young and in love, and nothing could dim her starry eyes. Rather than annoy her on such a day, Morwen was uplifted by it. Life went on, and they all had to go on with it.
By the time she and Ran were on their way back to New World, she had begun to relax. Her daddy’s wishes would be strictly adhered to, and once Walter had become accustomed to his new-found status, he would revel in his ownership of the second love of his life, Killigrew Clay. The first was Cathy… but his two loves were so intertwined, and so much a part of his whole life, she guessed there was hardly any separating them.
‘Are you quite happy with the way things turned out, Ran?’ she said suddenly, when he seemed unusually quiet.
‘I think it’s the best thing that could have happened. Though I’m mighty sure Justin didn’t felt the same.’
Morwen shook her head slowly. ‘I hope it won’t cause any trouble between them, and I don’t know why it should. Justin’s got what he always wanted, after all.’
‘But he’s Ben Killigrew’s son, and Walter isn’t,’ Ran pointed out, ‘so maybe he feels done out of what should be rightfully his.’
‘I know,’ Morwen said uneasily. ‘But there’s nothing we can do about it now. Daddy had his reasons for doing what he did, and they were sound enough. Justin will have to learn to accept it, and I’m sure he’ll do so quickly enough.’
She had so rarely disagreed with anything her father did, but she wondered now if he had been altogether wise in his bequest. But even as the thought passed through her head, she knew it had been the right thing to do. Walter and Killigrew Clay were like the finely-stitched seams on one of her mammie’s garments. They blended together so smoothly, you could hardly see the joins.
‘What is it you have to do now, dar?’ she said, not wanting to think about it any more. ‘I thought we could have an early tea with the children, and take a stroll afterwards, as it promises to be such a fine evening.’
‘Not possible, honey,’ he said firmly. ‘As soon as I’ve changed my clothes, I’m riding up to Killigrew Clay, to acquaint the pit captains and the workers with the news.’
‘What? But surely that can wait? Won’t Walter want to do it himself?’
‘It can’t wait, and nor do I think it best for Walter to go there and announce his new status. Think about it sensibly, Morwen. There are sure to be some who’ll resent it, and Walter’s nerves are probably on a knife edge already over the news. No, I want to prepare the way for him, and when it’s done, I’ll call on him and Cathy to tell them what I’ve done.’
She couldn’t argue with his logic, but she thought he might have discussed it with her first. After all, she was a partner in the clayworks too… with a leap of her heart, she adjusted her thoughts to the new order of things. Ran and herself, and Walter… it was no wonder that Justin felt momentarily shut out. As company lawyer and accountant, he was still on the fringe of things, despite being well aware of every detail of the fluctuating fortunes of the business.
Her head was beginning to ache with thinking of it all, and she decided that if Ran was too busy to stroll with herself and the children, then she would continue with her plans. Some fresh air was what she needed, and the children would have been cooped up at their lessons all day, and needing an outlet for their energies.
‘I think I shall take the children to the beach,’ she said. ‘Gillings can take us in the trap, and a run on the sands will do them good. It will also help to dispel any gloomy thoughts Miss Pinner may have been putting in their heads about funerals and wills and the like.’
The new governess was a sound woman, but given to detailed and graphic descriptions of current events to educate the children in worldly or domestic affairs. In Morwen’s opinion, it wasn’t altogether best for their peace of mind.
But she was greeted so enthusiastically by the two of them when she went to the nursery that she assumed that all was well.
‘I thought we’d have an early tea and go to the beach,’ she said as Emma ran to her for a hug.
‘And I shall find some new shells for my collection,’ Emma said at once, clapping her hands.
‘I shall look for fossils,’ Luke said importantly. ‘Mammie, will Grandad Hal be turned into a fossil by now? Miss Pinner didn’t seem to know.’
Morwen mumbled something beneath her breath in answer. Then she hugged her daughter a little closer, hiding her face in the burnished dark hair, as her glimmer of laughter at such an audacious question threatened to spill over into tears.